MacGomery Law

Archive for January, 2009

The fourth opening on the Circuit Court for Montgomery County was created by the announcement that The Honorable William J. Rowan, III will retire effective April 4, 2009. The vacancy is to be filled by appointment of Governor Martin O’Malley. The Governor has the opportunity to go in a different direction from his last three appointments and select a candidate who currently serves on the bench of the District Court for Montgomery County. According to the Judicial Nominating Commission, that would include the Honorable John M. Conroy, the Honorable Barry A. Hamilton, or the Honorable Cheryl A. McCally. On its face, it would seem to be a no brainer decision. Judge Conroy and Judge McCally took the bench in June 2006. Judge Hamilton has been serving the citizens of Montgomery County as a District Court judge since 1966. With 12 years on the bench, and 20 years prior to that as an Assistant States Attorney for Montgomery County, it would appear to be a simple decision. But then again, the Governor has gone in a different direction in each of the last three appointments to the circuit court by selecting a county attorney, a family division master, and an attorney in private practice. Isn’t it about time to acknowledge the contributions of a loyal servant to the county and appoint a judge with nearly 30 years of courtroom experience? Isn’t that what the citizens of Montgomery County deserve?

Anthony Castelli posted the following questions on the LinkedIn Trial Networks Group: How do you use linkedin to get personal injury or workers compensation cases? Especially for your geographica area. I think LinkedIn is a difficult platform to use to drive PI/WC clients to your firm. More appropriately, in my humble opinion, is that it has to be part of your broader social media marketing program. I am in the process of developing my program using LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, and my blog (blog.tyralawfirm.com). I think you really need to do all four, something akin to the four pillars of online marketing. It is the blog (again – in my humble opinion) that is key to driving clients to your firm because it is there that you can give them the most value and expose them to the breadth of your knowledge in your practice area. So the analogies that I like to think of are these:

1. Twitter is the equivalent of talking with friends at the bar or over the fence in your backyard. It is here that you get the word out as to what you do and let people know of your practice. But more importantly, it is where you direct them to visit your blog. You do that with hooks regarding your recent blog posts that they may find informative or interesting.
2. Facebook takes it just a bit further in that you can more directly interact with friends, neighbors, classmates, etc. who may become clients. Here to you can promote your blog posts but you want to be judicious in doing so.
3. LinkedIn is the larger professional networking experience – something like going to your bar association meeting. Here you connect with others in your industry and use that knowledge to form relationships that hopefully lead to referrals. By the way, it is a great method for finding expert witnesses.
4. Your blog is what pulls it all together. Here you can teach, inform, inspire, lead, make rain – the possibilities are endless. But you have to have something to say, you have to provide value to your readers, and you have to let people know that your blog exists (see items 1-3).

Can it be time consuming? Absolutely. But I think if you manage it properly the potential far outweighs the risk. And in terms of return on investment, no other form of advertising in my opinion gives you the potential footprint and ability to speak directly to your client base as do these new social media platforms.

Governor Martin O’Malley yesterday announced the selection of Richard E. “Rick” Jordan to fill the upcoming vacancy on the Circuit Court for Montgomery County, replacing the retiring Honorable S. Michael Pincus. In less than a year,  the Governor has appointed three new judges to the highest level county court. Back in September 2008 he appointed Honorable Steven G. Salant and Sharon V. Burrell to the bench. While all three are excellent lawyers with fine reputations, none of the three have any experience on the bench. True, Mr. Salant was a Family Division Master and as such controlled a docket, handled competing attorney’s arguments, and applied the law. But Ms. Burrell was an attorney for the County and now Mr. Jordan is an attorney in private practice. So the question that is begged is: “why not a District Court judge?” There was a time that the District Court was the natural breeding ground for candidates for the higher court. It seems as if the Governor has turned a deaf ear on that lineage. Which doesn’t seem right for the citizens of Montgomery County. There is a least one District Court judge who is eminently qualified and for whom a variety of the specialty bars of the County have advocated. And beyond that, several more District Court judges would seem to be a good fit for the Circuit Court bench. Are there other considerations that influence the Governor’s decisions? Of course there are – there always are. One can only hope that those “other factors” serve the citizens of the County.

So I am reading “Younger Next Year: Live Strong, Fit, and Sexy Until You’re 80 and Beyond” by Chris Crowley and Henry Lodge, MD. Problem is, I need it to work tomorrow, if not sooner. How come I was the only one who received this as a Christmas gift from a family member? So apparently I have to learn to be a bit more selfish and put myself first when it comes to being healthy. I got the selfish and putting myself first part down pat. I thought that was what I was supposed to be trying to correct. So here goes, I guess. One of the points of the book was to jump into the process with much bluster and noise. I suppose to help make sure you don’t backslide. That’s all I need. This is about as much noise and bluster as I can muster for the time being. But the book also made a point of saying shut up, quit whining, be a man, and just do it. Nice… where’s the love here? So the book has about 50 pages of useful stuff (nothing you really didn’t already know – except for that work out hard six days a week for the rest of your life – yikes!), and another 100 pages of repeating the same thing over and over again. Of course, after reading the important 50 pages, I flipped through the book until I found the chapter on sex – or being sexy. Sad to say that the book only devoted a mere eight pages to the subject. What’s up with that? I gotta find another book…

This whole train of thought flowed (no pun intended) from the water main break that flooded River Road in Montgomery County and stranded several drivers. I was wondering what people, particularly attorneys, thought you should keep in your car in case of emergencies. The following list compiles some of the responses I received.

As a personal injury attorney, these are the things I wish my clients would keep in their cars in case of an emergency:

1. Disposable camera – nothing helps a case more, or kills it, than pictures taken of the scene at the time of the accident. Get a disposable that generates digital pictures and keep it where you can get to it.
2. First aid kit – they are so easy to get and so useful even in non-emergency situations.
3. Lifehammer/ResQMe/Window Punch – see my earlier post regarding the flood on River Road that started this whole discussion. One of these are necessary in case you have to break a window in your car from the insode.
4. Flashlight – I didn’t have one when I got a flat tire on I-270 and I was a major accident waiting to happen on the side of the road. In this case AAA came through like a charm.
5. ICE – In Case of Emergency (ICE) entry in your cell phone or PDA with the contact information of who to reach in case of emergency. First responders are taught to look for this.
6. Batteries – my wife has an entire store full of batteries in the car, mostly to drive the kids entertainment platforms, but when the flashlight battery runs out you will want a spare.
7. Flares & jumper cables – again, one of the best Christmas gifts my mother ever gave her sons was a set of heavy duty, extra long, jumper cables in a case that included instructions (which I needed). The extra long ones are particularly helpful.
8. Boots – I really need these standing in the mud on the side of the I-270.
9. Summary of medical information for each family member, to include blood type and any ongoing medical conditions and medications taken (not the meds themselves necessarily). Remember, you might not be the only one in the car.
10. Copy of your health care power of attorney and/or living will.

But beyond those things, the list of items that people carry in their cars was pretty extensive. My mother has the most well equipped trunk of anyone I know. We joke that she could survive a week or two in her car. She has several items on this list (including a baseball bat which isn’t on the list). Here is the rest of the list, in alphabetical order. Tell me what you think should be on the list.

1. aspirin or some other pain reliever
2. bag of sand in the trunk
3. batteries
4. blanket
5. boots
6. can opener
7. candles and a folger’s coffee can to burn them in.
8. cash – at least $100 or whatever is sufficient for a tow
9. cell phone charger
10. disposable camera
11. dog treats as my puppy is often with me,
12. extra business cards
13. extra cell phone
14. extra mirror & makeup,
15. extra pair of shoes
16. extra pantyhose
17. extra top
18. first aid kit
19. flares
20. flashlight
21. food
22. hammer
23. health care power of attorney
24. hedge clippers
25. kleenex.
26. list of phone numbers for family and friends and roadside rescue services
27. living will
28. matches
29. needle & thread,
30. one of the most important things someone can do is to place an ICE entry on their mobile phone or PDA. ICE = In Case of Emergency Create an entry titled ICE and insert the contact information for the person who should be contacted if you can’t respond. First responders are now taught to access a persons phone and look for an ICE contact.
31. paper
32. pen/pencil/magic marker
33. pliers.
34. portable battery operated fan
35. roll of duct tape
36. screwdriver
37. seat-belt cutter
38. shovel
39. sleeping bag
40. something to read while you wait for help
41. stain remover,
42. summary of medical information for each family member, to include blood type and any ongoing medical conditions and medications taken (not the meds themselves necessarily)
43. tea bags
44. tire repair kit including inflator device,
45. towels – 6 or 8 of them if you have room
46. water
47. wet wipes,
48. window punch
49. wire, electrical and binding

I’m starting to get the hang of this blog thing. So I have updated the theme to be more of a legal feel. Not exactly happy with how it looks so now I have to explore other options or developing one of my own. Any suggestions?

I finally was able to upgrade to WordPress 2.7. I am sure that it would have been easier to build a rocket capable of flying to the moon. But the whole concept of how the website and the blog subdomain are organized and how to FTP files to that part of the directory structure is like trying to learn a foreign language for me. I can do it, but it takes forever and is very frustrating. And I have a degree in computer science! Looking back it all seem obvious now.

But it sure doesn’t seem Mac like. How come I have to get into the guts of unix structure just to update the blog software. And while I am at it, updating the blog itself doesn’t feel very Mac like. Maybe I am using the wrong products. Maybe TypePress is better. But it has taken me so long to get here, I ain’t changing now.

Now…to figure out how to change the WP theme. I already have a headache…